It Takes a Village

Five years after the project was announced, Escondido Village Graduate Residences (EVGR) opened this fall. The complex, located on the east side of campus, was designed to meet a major university need in the pricey Bay Area: enabling 75 percent of graduate students to live on campus. That is, once it’s fully occupied by grad students. This fall, one building in EVGR was allocated to undergrads with special permission to live on campus, because the modern, apartment-style units meet physical distancing requirements necessitated by the pandemic. As for the amenities that were designed to foster community and interaction—game rooms, music practice rooms, a yoga and dance studio, a makerspace, a pub that will offer brewing classes, and a teaching kitchen—they may not be hubs of activity just yet. But there’s always Frisbee on the lawn.